


A Magical Murder Mystery

by Evil_Overlady



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:40:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Overlady/pseuds/Evil_Overlady
Summary: A very rich lady is holding a dinner party to distribute her inheritance, unfortunately this setup is far too cliché for someone not to get murdered.





	A Magical Murder Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as an an entry for a writing program, even though I didn’t get in I still wanted to share it because I’m very happy with the way it came out. Please do not skip through the letters in the beginning, they do vary based on the person.

Inspector H., 

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is entirely mandatory should you wish to receive your portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance. It is also mandatory should you wish to survive. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Mr. Petrov, 

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is entirely mandatory should you wish to receive your portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner, and please convince the Inspector to attend along with you. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Miss Namkoong, 

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is entirely mandatory should you wish to receive your portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner. Consider carefully what is appropriate, certainly not one of the many strange outfits you have worn to formal events in the past. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Dr. Liu, 

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is entirely mandatory should you wish to receive your portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner. Do not worry, any complications caused by your inhumanity have been accounted for. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Miss DeMarron,

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is entirely mandatory should you wish to receive your portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance when you come of age. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Miss Luring, 

You are cordially invited to attend a dinner party taking place at the manor of Lady Fin Apocalypse on the night of January the seventh. Directions to the location are enclosed. Your attendance is required as Miss DeMarron’s legal guardian. Without supervision she can not receive her portion of Miss Apocalypse’s inheritance. Please dress appropriately for a formal dinner. 

Respectfully,   
Lady Fin G. Apocalypse

— — — 

Simon, 

January seventh. Please return home. 

Respectfully,   
Mother

— — — 

—— —— ——

The guests arrived sporadically, as there was no specific time set for the dinner. Being close friends, Dr. Bao Liu and Mr. Nikolai Petrov arrived together at the unreasonably early hour of four o’clock. They stood for a moment, before Nikolai banged the elaborate door knocker against the door. 

A cheery voice greeted the two as they entered the massive foyer. “Welcome, you are both a bit earlier then expected! Miss Apocalypse is still upstairs working in her office.” There was no one in the room, but the voice could still be heard, “Please, take the door to your left. You will find a sitting room where you can wait for the other guests to arrive.” 

The door was difficult to find among all the clutter. Nikolai would not have thought it possible for such a large space to be full of things, but the evidence was all around him. There were many tables displaying obscure magical objects, old fashioned machines, mundane items of historical importance, the works of famous artists, and various body parts of exotic creatures. Wherever there was not a grand window, the walls were covered in all sorts of paintings, photos, and some scientific diagrams that even with all his knowledge Bao could not decipher. Even the two grand staircases in the center of the room had strange ornaments hanging off their banisters. 

Bao was the one who finally found the door, it was blue with clouds painted across it. 

“Nikolai, I think this is it.” Silence. Bao tried again, yelling this time. “Nikolai!” 

The sound of something person sized banging into many things could be heard in the distance. 

Nikolai piped up; “I didn’t break anything! Wait, did you find the door?”

“Yes, it’s under the Hydra head on the wall, can you see it?” 

“I’m on my way!” 

—— —— ——

Thankfully, the sitting room was a more organized mess than the foyer. 

Bao and Nikolai looked quite alike, both with black hair and not much to indicate inhumanity. 

Except for one thing. Nikolai was very ghostlike, with eyes were a watery blue-green so pale that it was hard to tell the whites of his eyes from the irises. Had it been darker in the room, you might have noticed that they gave off a soft glow. 

He threw himself onto the nearest armchair. Out of nowhere, the voice from before scolded him, 

“Please be careful. Everything in this house is ridiculously old and very fragile.” 

The two men each had their own reaction to this. Nikolai jumped in his seat, cursing under his breath, while Bao blinked. 

“I apologize, I did not mean to startle you.” On top of a short table in the center of the room a blue tinted hologram flickered into existence. It was a woman in a flower crown, when she spoke the movements of her mouth matched with the voice from before. “My name is Soledad, I am the AI that runs most of this house. I should probably give you the whole history lesson about being the first AI recreation of a real person and a marvel of technology back when I was born, but I assume you know that Dr. Liu.” 

“Yes.” Bao responded. In the silence following you could almost hear the dot dot dot of an elipsis measuring out a pause. “I need to know for work.” 

“Of course, what else would I be referring to?” Soledad smiled. “Well, since the Inspector has not arrived with you two despite your friendship, should I make a note that she will not be here for dinner?” 

Bao glanced at Nikolai before replying, “You should, Inspector H. will not be attending.”

—— —— —— 

The next pair to walk up the front steps of the mansion were Mara Luring and Adela DeMarron. Though when they did there was a short young woman in a dark suit standing in front of the door. She had a line of green gems running down her throat that appeared to have grown out of her skin and was wearing sunglasses in the dead of winter. To Mara she looked like a government agent trying (and failing) to blend in with normal people. 

“Oh thank god! I’ve been waiting for ages!” The woman whipped off her sunglasses to show eyes the same shade of green as her gems. “Can you two let me in? I have an important official message to deliver!” 

The double doors swung open the moment Adela knocked on them. Soledad’s voice once again rung through the foyer, 

“Miss DeMarron, Miss Luring, and one unknown guest, welcome! The two of you who were invited may head to the sitting room to your left, I feel I should clarify that the door is blue since the last few guests had such a hard time finding it. As for you, unknown guest, would you happen to have a name?”

“Yeah, I’m Jessamine, Jessamine Vermula. I have a message for Lady Apocalypse, are you her?” 

“No, my name is Soledad, I am the Lady’s AI assistant. You may give me the message to pass on to her, she is working and I do not know when she will available.”

“Um, no I don’t think I can do that.” Jessamine said. “There are details in my message that really only Lady Apocalypse should hear.” 

Soledad kept an even tone, but annoyance was starting to sneak it’s way into her voice. “Fine. You may look around the house until she is available. Please do not disturb the other guests, and please please do not touch anything.” 

—— —— ——

The next person to show up was not a guest for the dinner party. His name was Maxwell Batterton, and Lady Apocalypse had hired him to advise her about some legal documents. He was not the most experienced lawyer, but he was the only one willing to head out into the middle of nowhere in the dark in order to make it to the manor by seven o’clock. 

Perhaps Maxwell would not have been willing to do all that if he had known it would snow. 

On the bright side, he found a companion who was enjoying the snow. A little orange fox kept rolling around in the snow and racing to catch up with Maxwell, then running in circles around him. The fox followed him all the way through the front door of the manor, where both of them needed to shake off piled up snow. 

“Hello, welcome Mr. Batterton. Lady Apocalypse is now in her study awaiting your arrival. Please head upstairs, I will direct you using my voice.” 

Maxwell did as told, after pausing to give the fox a few pats on the head. 

Speaking of the fox, it did not seem the least bit bothered by the fact that it was now stuck inside this strange manor. Soledad, however, was a bit bothered that this was the second uninvited person to show up. 

“Excuse me,” She addressed the fox, “Would you please tell me your name and your purpose inside this house.” 

The fox blinked and began walking further into the house, all three of its tails swishing behind it. 

Soledad tried once more to get the fox’s attention. 

“Sir or ma’am, whichever you are, I must ask you to either clarify what you are doing here or leave. This is private property and you are trespassing. While I admit I can not bother the Lady to kick you out right now, I can call the authorities.” 

At this the fox’s head shot up, and it bounded away into the most crowded part of the foyer to hide. 

—— —— ——

The final guest walked into the foyer with perfect hair and not a speck of snow on her, despite the raging blizzard outside she must have gone through. She was Catherine Namkoong, though fans of her music knew her as Cat N, and close friends just called her Cat. 

Having completely disregarded the warning in her letter, Cat had decided to show up in a baggy knit pink sweater, black leggings, and a pair of scuffed up white and pink sneakers. 

“Miss Namkoong, welcome, truly you look lovely this evening.” Soledad greeted her. 

“Aw, thanks! It’s nice to get a compliment, even if I know it was a sneaky insult!” Cat grinned from ear to ear. “Especially since I know Lady Apocalypse will probably be less subtle.” 

“I was not- oh never mind. Dinner should start very shortly. All the other guests are exploring the first floor, you may as well. Please be careful though, this house has very many breakable things in it.” 

Just then, Maxwell walked down the stairs, briefcase in hand, navigating his way through the mess of things until he made it to the door. When he tried to open it Soledad interrupted him. 

“Mr. Batterton, I apologize but you will need to stay here for the night, the weather outside is dangerous. In fact I will alert everyone else that they must stay here. Please do not worry, I will have guest rooms prepared for all of you.” 

“What!?” Maxwell dropped his briefcase. “I thought I could go home, I told my fiancé I would be back an hour from now!” 

“I can send a message to your fiancé if you give me their phone number. I apologize again, but I have no control over the weather.” 

Cat apparently had her own thoughts on the situation. “Hey, I need to be back too! I have work tomorrow morning and I can’t get there on time from all the way out here!” 

“Once again, I do not control the weather, and I am not the one who called you all out here.” If Soledad was able to, she would have sighed in exasperation. “The only thing I can do is send messages explaining what happened to your families and employers.” 

—— —— —— 

From all across the first floor of the house, everyone else was getting the same news, with much the same reactions. 

“I don’t want to be here after dark!” Nikolai had his own reasons for being angry, “I can tell at a glance that most of this weird junk is haunted!” 

Out of all the people in the house, Nikolai would know this best since he was a professional exorcist, and a very good one at that. Now, when an exorcist says something is haunted and dangerous, you should probably listen. 

Bao was with him, though less angry since he no place in particular to be, and the only thing close to family to notify would be Inspector H. and Nikolai who both knew what was going on. It was still annoying to be stuck though. 

—— —— —— 

Adela and Mara also received the news. They had settled down in a room made entirely of windows that jutted out from the main building, so the snow was hard to ignore. The two had already decided not to try and make it back. 

Mara figured she would freeze before she got back to the main road, so she had spent the last half hour on the phone. She was the kind of businesswoman who had her fingers in many different pies, so to speak. However, she had just tied up the last few loose ends when Soledad gave the announcement. 

Adela on the other hand, just had to call her school, which she had finished doing long ago. So obviously she spent her free time touching as many fragile things as she could find. 

Mara hung up on the last phone call. 

“Hey, Adela, I’m done.”

Mara should have been classically beautiful, with her long blonde hair and large eyes, however something about her was... off. At first glance it would be hard to guess what, she just made you uneasy. It was small things, she was a bit too tall and a bit too thin, with strangely long limbs. There were straight lines in places that should be curved, and some of her features were every so slightly higher or lower than they should be. Combined, all this gave the impression of a statue made by a sculptor that had only seen individual parts of a person, and not how they fit together. 

Adela just looked like a normal girl. 

“Really?” Adela stood up too fast and banged her head on a shelf above her. Apparently she did not notice this, because she just scrambled over to Mara without reacting. “Can we explore the house?”

“I was thinking the same thing!” A devilish grin spread across Mara’s face, “How about... a scavenger hunt!” 

“Perfect, I saw lots of stuff from back in the Fairywood, lets see how long it takes to find an actually correct map!” Adela was bouncing on her heels. 

“Okay, If I find find it first you do the dishes for a week when we get back home, if you find it then I will.” 

“Deal! All right three, two, one, go!” Adela counted down far too quickly and ran off before Mara had a chance to react. 

Soon enough Mara chased after her, calling out teasing Adela about cheating. 

—— —— —— 

After about an hour of wandering the maze-like manor, most of the guests were more than ready to leave. The fact that they could not do so only made this desire more intense. 

Jessamine was the one to finally do something about it. 

“Soledad, when exactly did you say Lady Apocalypse would hear my message?” 

Jessamine had found another hologram table, like the one in the sitting room. Soledad appeared on it, with the same blue tint and flower crown as before. 

“I am not sure. I am not allowed to bother her while she is working, though she said she would start the dinner at eight o’clock.” 

Glancing over at a nearby grandfather clock carved like a tree with a snake coiled around it, Jessamine could make out the time to be eight forty-two. Soledad seemed to recognize this fact as well, her expression did not falter, but the hologram became hazy and began flickering. 

“The Lady is always very punctual. This is unlike her, I promise.” 

“I don’t care if she’s normally punctual! I care that she’s late right now!” Jessamine jumped out of her seat, “I could be doing something important right now, but instead I’m here despite being the worst choice of person to deliver this dumb message!” She paused, realizing something. “Hey, I can definitely make it through the snow, so I just need to give her the message then I can leave. Y’know what? If Lady Apocalypse won’t come out here to listen to what I need to say, I’ll just find her and make her listen!” 

“Please, Miss Vermula,” Soledad appeared in perfect clarity, trying to reach out a projected hand to stop Jessamine, her eyes darting around frantically. “No one is allowed to bother the Lady! Please understand that this could be very dangerous for you!” 

Jessamine was storming up the stairs now, each one buckled under her weight despite how tiny she was. Without missing a beat she opened the first door at the top of the stair with a slam. 

The voice of Soledad followed her all the way, 

“Miss Vermula, I am certain the Lady will see you soon enough, Miss Vermula, please listen!” 

Jessamine kept moving down the hallway, opening door after door, ignoring Soledad. 

Slam. A closet. Slam. A bedroom. Slam. Another closet. Until the only door left was the one at the very end of the hall. 

The very last door banged open, and time seemed to stand still. 

All of Jessamine’s rage and all of Soledad’s desperation evaporated as easily as morning dew. 

Lady Fin G. Apocalypse was slumped over her desk, dead with a knife in her back. 

—— —— ——

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a sort of chapter 1 for now, but I may write more if I feel like it.


End file.
